Singularity Tokyo

Chapter 2 

	Now I haven't been that good at getting 
transportation for myself. Mostly when I have to go 
places I either take public transportation or bike. 
Checking a map of Greater Tokyo for where the pay phone 
was in relation to my hole in the wall, as I call my 
apartment. I would be still living with my parents 
except for the fact that I manage to make the occasional 
odd job that pays very well. I decided to take my bike. 
It was only twenty klicks or so. Being an avid biker I 
have most of the neat stuff you can equip a bike with. 
Most of it is fairly low-tech stuff. A small computer to 
measure speed, distance and such. A pair of bags on the 
back and various other items. Bike rides for me tend to 
be hard but fun to do. As some would say its not the 
destination but how much fun you have while getting 
there. As others have, the means do not justify the 
ends. This I have taken to heart in my cracking and  
such. Nothing is permanently damaged. That has been my 
motto for a while. If I break in, I don't leave a nasty 
virus. Maybe a fun one, but no nasty ones.

	For most people gut reactions are taken as such. 
With me I find my gut usually tells me very good things, 
like 'eat something'. I've found that also my gut 
reaction to stuff is eerily accurate. I had this feeling 
that I was being followed. Considering that I was only a 
couple blocks from the pay phone. I had reason to be 
nervous. Trying not to be too obvious, I made a quick 
turn down a side street half a block before the pay 
phone. Stopping my bike and pulling it and myself into a 
shop front. A large truck drove by. By itself it was 
fairly inconspicuous but the name across the side was. 
'Silky Doll'.  A Lingerie store. I'd only heard of it 
due to that RHC had mentioned it as one of her shopping 
favorites. I'd been there once, too expensive for me. 
The guy that had been minding the counter had been sorta 
cute but he was too old for me. 

	Nearing the pay phone I decided that I'd better do 
this quick. Pulling up I picked up the receiver and 
punched in the number. 
'Ring... Ring'. 
Then a Click. 
The phone clicked on "If you are listening to this then 
you have followed the intructions to the letter. What is 
your name?".
One of the few rules on being on the shady side of the 
net is never to give your real name out. 
"Why should I?" I replied into the mic. 
The phone clicked on again 
"Voice print confirmed. Good Day, Aika 
Nanako"
My first thought was 'oh crap'. I would have used a very 
unladylike word but I'd been taught not to swear. Well 
not in public. Over the net was another kettle of fish. 
Deciding to make like various things do and bugger off. 
I finished the bike ride home in almost half the time it 
usually does. Most of that was due to a little shortcut 
along the freeway hanging onto a bus. That tactic of 
biking is one I know how to do well. Don't ask how 
exactly you practice that kind of thing. 

	Arriving back home I put my bike in the closet and 
checked outside for tails. Specifically a certain truck. 
Nothing. Oh well. Then there was a knock at the door. I 
nearly jumped through the roof. Checcking the peep hole, 
revealed it to be a delivery boy. With a sigh of relief 
I opened the door. 
"Package for you Ma'am"
"Who's it from?" I asked
"Doesn't say. Just sign here"
Taking the clipboard, I signed my name and handed it 
back. 
"Here you  go." he said and handed me a medium sized 
box.
Closing the door behind me as I carried the box into the 
living room. 'I wonder what this is?' I thought. Oh well 
time to get some sleep. Now when it comes to sleep there 
are times when I get a decent amount of sleep and 
then... Well then there are times when I don't. 

	Chucking off my clothes and getting into my 
pajamas. I usually wear my pajamas to bed nowadays. Well 
ever since that fire drill. Mostly my dreams are pretty 
normal. There are some weird ones every once in a while. 
Then there are the erotic ones. Those I base my Lemon 
stories on. Thus I drifted off to slumberland.

************************

<BGM 'Y'know from BGC 2040 (intro)>

	Usually when I wake up I go from unconscious to 
ready to go preetty fast. When I woke up next wasn't. 
Things were sorta fuzzy then clarified into reality. 
Then I realized two things. One, I was no longer in my 
bed or even my apartment. Two, I was wearing this suit 
that I'd never seen before. Correction. Three things. 
Three, I am twenty stories up the side of a high rise, 
downtown. I was now perched on a ledge twenty stories 
up. My first thought was 'How the smeg did I get up 
here?'. My Second 'How the smeg am I going to get down'. 
My Third 'this is a neat looking suit'.
Checking myself over and the ledge around me reveal 
nothing as to how I got here. Looking around the ledge 
for someway into the building, up or down it. Nothing. 
"How the heck did I get here?"
Another of my quirks I talk to myself. Now what I didn't 
expect was an answer.
"Well you climbed"
Glancing around for the source of the voice. Then it 
clicked, helmet intercom.
"Who are you?"
"Lets just say I represent possible employment"
"One of the Knight Sabers I expect"
"Good, now up to a little exercise?"
Then out of my peripheral vision I caught a flash of 
movement. Someone was on the ledge with me. Turning my 
head I saw another figure. 
"How do we get down?" I asked. I wasn't sure I wanted to 
hear the answer.
"We jump"
At her words I took a glance down. Now I'm not that 
afraid of heights. Its just I tend not to jump off 
ledges twenty stories up unless I have to. As I stood my 
suit's systems came alive. 
"Well, no time like the present."
"Meet you at the bottom" She said and then jumped. 
Watching her swan dive toward the concrete didn't seem 
to reassure me. When faced with challenges like this in 
computer games. I'm usually the one to jump in first and 
check it out then go back carefully from my saved game. 
This however had no save game.
"Oh well, GERONIMO!" and I jumped. 
Nothing can prepare you for the fright of falling 
towards the ever approaching ground. I felt so scared I 
was sure I was going to wet myself. Looking downward I 
saw Her land in a blaze of fire from he jetpack. 'Cool' 
I thought 'hope mine works as well as hers did'. As I 
neared the ground I my jetpack fired and I slowed and 
landed with a 'Thump'. Figuring that this was just the 
beginning. I looked over at Her. 
"So what should I call you?"
"Call me Spectre," she replied.
"So what next?"
"A short run."
"Oh." I had a feeling I wasn't going to like this.
"Catch me if you can." And she was off.
"Aw, man." Now I know I'm out of shape but she was going 
as fast as I could on a bike. How the heck was I 
supposed to keep up?

	I started to run after Spectre. To my suprise I 
seemed to be keeping up with her and even gaining on 
her. As if in answer to my thoughts as to how fast I was 
going A small display popped up in the corner of my 
view. Speed 45kph. And it was going up! How the heck am 
I running this fast?
"Great pieces of equipment these suits, huh?"
"... well yeah" I replied.
"Good now that we're warmed up"
The words warmed up struck me as odd. I hadn't felt at 
all tired. My thoughts left me as Spectre sped up further. 
Pushing myself I was able to keep up. Barely. My lungs 
began to burn and it felt like my legs were starting to 
feel like they were on fire. Then as if she had reached 
a preset finish line. She slowed and stopped. It took me 
a bit longer than Spectre to run the distance. 
As I reached the line she said "Thirty 
seconds"
I puzzled this as I attempted to regain my breath and 
whatever composure I could. 

	Then things began to get fuzzy again, and 
blackness took me once again.

**************************

	I woke up in my bed, in my pajamas. I was drenched 
in sweat. I felt like had run a marathon and taken on 
Muhammed Ali, both at the same time! God that dream had 
felt real. Checking the clock, 8:00AM. 
My stomach rumbled its five minute warning. Getting up 
proved almost as painful as waking up. After a quick 
stop in the washroom. I went in search of food. Fridge, 
nothing much. Got milk? I do. Getting a box of cereal 
for one of the cupboards. I grabbed a bowl and spoon 
from the counter and had breakfast. While I ate, I ran 
though my dream over and over. How it seemed so real. 
Also how my body felt like I had done it for real 
instead of dreaming it. Looking down into my now empty 
bowl. I poured another bowl and went on thinking. This 
happened a couple times. When nothing came out of the 
cereal box. I realized two things. One, that was almost 
full when I took it from the cupboard. Two, I was still 
hungry. Getting up I knocked something off the table as 
I went by. Picking it up. I recognized it as the box 
that had been delivered yesterday. Weird, it seemed much 
heavier yesterday.  May as well open it. Opening it 
revealed an empty box with a small note. It read, 
'Aika Nanako, Mark II, test suit alpha, NR acquisition', 
then a bunch of numbers and symbols. Weird. My Stomach 
growled again. Heeding its call I went and got another 
cereal box out of the cupboard. I sat down again and 
started my way into the cereal. After a few more bowls 
of cereal, my stomach decided finally that it was full. 

	After breakfast I decided to check my email. 
Logging on to the net I opened up my email client and 
checked for new messages. Couple messages from some of 
my cracker buddies. Most of them had had no luck with 
the FTP route. Then a message from a rhc@KS.org. Wait a 
sec. Opening up the message. I scanned down the message. 
Basically it was a non-disclosure agreement for when I 
worked for them. Then something about training starting 
on... Yesterdays date? Checking the time on when the 
email was sent pulled a blank, as did where the message 
had originated from. 

	From what I had heard about the Knight Sabers. 
They were a pretty elite organization. Membership by 
invitation only, sort of thing. Also there had only been 
four recorded members of the team. Of the four only two 
had reliable pictures of them. One of my hobbies when I 
was younger was to keep a scrap book of their 
accomplishments. Some of the stuff I'd made up myself. 
The rest had been cut outs of newspaper articles. Kept 
at it mostly these days out of boredom and something as 
a hobby. 

	Back in the early 30's a group of vigilantes had 
started trashing boomers. Back then though the boomers 
were a lot more dangerous. Well relatively speaking. The 
AD police had recently been formed and was only five or 
six years old. It was under pressure by higher ups to 
become more efficient. The budget cuts had resulted in 
horrible slaughter of the AD police by boomers. The 
Knight Sabers were looked upon as saviors and god sent. 
Then the training and budget the AD police needed 
arrived. The Knight Sabers also took to more training 
and budget. Their reputation as getting what needed to 
be done was nearly perfect. Most of the jobs they took 
were low key stuff, With the occasional headline hi-
jinx.  The main jobs they managed to get, when the AD 
police managed to get their budget increased, were 
bodyguards and occasionally security. But for the most 
part they faded into obscurity. 

	Then a break through in boomer technology made 
them extremely cheap. Also the manufacturing of a 
variety of shapes and types became available. Due to 
sentiments that were anti-boomer they looked human for 
the most part, but their AI's were so simple as to be  
barely able to work. Then the rampages started. Various 
ordinary boomers started going nuts and wreaking havoc. 
Then AD police were efficient now and could easily take 
down all but the most dangerous of the boomers. The 
Knight Sabers resurfaced at this point. They soon became 
the bane of the AD police. They now were fast enough to 
get to the boomer rampage scene minutes before the AD 
police could. In some places the AD police only found 
the smashed remains of the rampaging boomer. In others 
they came upon the combat itself. The Knight Sabers had 
new hard suits and were kicking ass. Three years of this 
passed. The AD police became almost a joke. They were 
getting beaten to the boomer seven times out of ten. 
When they did get there first. The boomer died quick and 
fast. Sometimes they lost men, but nothing compared to 
earlier in the Decade.

	Then there were three. One of the Knight Sabers 
stopped appearing. The rumor along the grapevine was 
that they had been hurt and they were taking an extended 
vacation. Then another stopped showing up. Two were left 
and the boomers that seemed such an easy chore for the 
AD police began to turn nasty with a vengeance. The 
standard operating manual for killing boomers seemed to 
be tossed out the window. Instead of stupid but strong 
boomers, they now were intelligent killing machines. 
They tore through hastily set up AD police lines. The 
only upside was if you were taken down by a boomer and 
not killed the medics could probably save you. 
Rumors over the net said that they were looking for more 
members to replace the Knight Sabers that had been lost.

<BGM "Larger Than Life" by Back Street 
Boys>

	I decided that my former hobby would get an in-
depth looking through. Throughout the rest of the day I 
searched the Newspaper archives and News Media archives. 
Things began to make sense as I read through those 
articles. I decided to do something no one had found out 
before, The identities of the Knight Sabers. Throughout 
the day I worked scanning page after page of text, 
pictures. Watching hours upon hours of video footage. 
Throughout the night I dreamed I was a Knight Saber. Or 
at least I was training to be one. Weird dreams of 
combat, climbing up and down buildings. Even one of 
leaping from the top to top of skyscrapers. 

	I hate to admit it but I was out of shape and yes 
I'll admit it kinda fat. While I dreamed this training 
or torture as I now call it. My body seemed to tone 
itself and lose weight. How many girls want this? My 
appetite went through the roof. I started eating enough 
to feed a smegging horse. The first week of the dreams, 
my food bill doubled. Somehow though when I went 
shopping I stopped buying the impulse stuff and bought 
real food. This perplexed me due to the fact that the 
way I was searching you could of put a feed bag on me 
and I wouldn't have minded. 

	My searching began to turn up results. I was able 
to put together a half accurate timeline for the Knight 
Sabers. From their first days as miss-filed boomer 
accidents after being damaged by AD police, to actual 
sightings by non-police. To pictures from various 
sources during some of their battles, to the current day 
of sighting just two of them. One of my strokes of luck 
was the cracking of the AD police server by one of my 
cracker buddies. As all crackers know the only way to 
prove that you did it is to tell people how you did it 
so they could try as well. I got in using their password 
and downloaded the entire database relating to boomers, 
Knight Sabers and anything else I could lay my hands. 
Among these were a list of all AD police personnel 
between 2025 and present day. One of them caught my 
attention a red head by the name of Nene.

	Going through the AD police database took many 
days. By then end I was convinced that not only that 
Genom was monitoring the rampaging boomers. They were 
using the AD police and the Knight Sabers as a testing 
ground for boomer combat development. 

	Then I got the phone call. You know how there are 
moments where your life pivots around. This for sure was 
one of mine. It was late and I was about ready to go to 
bed when the phone rang. I picked it up and cradled on 
one shoulder as I finished my snack.
"Whatcha want?" I answered.
An obviously disguised voice replied.
"To give you employment"
"With what company?"
"You'll know soon enough. Spectre."
"Huh? Spectre??"
After I said the word 'spectre' my world vanished in a 
shroud of darkness.

********************

	My first thought upon waking were, where am I. 
Looking around I realized I was on a bed in what looked 
like a military command center. Then the door to the 
room opened and a short red-haired woman walked in. 
"Welcome to Knight Saber HQ, Aika"
"Who.. who are you?"
"We've met before, well electronically"
It clicked red hair, cute. Well sorta 
cute.
"You're RHC?" 
"yes, nice to meet you in person"
I sat up on the bed and then realized the state of dress 
I am in. Naked. Being the modest sort I blushed deep 
red.
"Um.. where are my clothes?"
"Well that's why I'm here.  You are wearing them, but you 
aren't"
"explain"
"Think of what you usually wear"
I thought of my normal baggy sweats and t-shirt I 
usually wear around the house. Then I felt a shiver go 
down my spine as my skin seemed to crawl for a second 
then stop. Looking down I found myself wearing the same 
clothes as I imagined right down to the ketchup stain on 
the T-shirt.
"H.. h.. how?"
"Bio-morphic suit. Don't know the basic details myself. 
It's based on a metal that was recently discovered in a 
meteorite a couple 
years back"
"So I get the job?"
"Oh yes" She laughed. " You definitely get the job."
"So what do I call you? RHC is a little harder to say 
then type"
"The name's Nene. Nene Romanov"
Hrmm, where have I seen that name before?
"So, Nene, why me?"
"That's very complicated. You know how Genom is the main 
producer of boomers?"
"yeah, everyone knows that"
"What you don't know but may have begun to suspect is 
Genom tests its everyday boomers for combat"
"That's why boomers go on those rampages"
"Yep and for years the Knight Sabers have unwittingly 
helped with those tests. The new breed of boomer these 
day takes the AD police apart and is hard for us to deal 
with even when double or triple teaming it"
"So I'm here basically to even the odds?"
"Yep"
So that's why the Knight Sabers faded into obscurity for 
that time back then.
"What about the dreams I've been having"
"Ah yes, the dreams. Those are the suit's fault. The 
suit unfortunately wants the person wearing it to be in 
top physical shape before it considers itself combat 
ready"
"You mean I've been actually doing all that stuff I've 
been dreaming?"
"Yes"
"Holy"
No wonder I felt like I'd done those things. I had.
"So how many other people are there on the Team?"
"Just three others"
"Myself, Priss and another"
"So how long have you people had your eye on me?"
"Well actually you got chosen because of me"
"You??"
"Yeah you were the only one that fit the psych profile"
"Psych profile?"
"Yeah, a readout of what you do when under stress. 
Whoops wasn't supposed to mention that"
They have a psych profile on me? Wonder if it is 
accurate to what I think I am.
"Ok then so when do I start?"
"Well, Aika, first we need to run some simulations and 
such with the suit. 
Then we need to get you aquatinted with the suits 
properties"
"Like what?"
"Well you know how you were able to create clothes from 
it?"
"Yeah" 
"You ain't seen nothing yet"
"So any idea who the other person is?"
"Nope, but I know Priss is talking to them in the other 
room"
With that she turned and walked toward the door
"We'll be testing both of you down in the training room"

	As Nene and I walked down the hall I marveled at 
how much money it would take to build this all, let 
alone keep it all running. 
"How much does it cost to run this 
place, Nene?"
"Oh" she stopped "you know I never thought of it. 
Probably more money than you've seen in one place"
"heh"
As we neared the end of the hall a door opened on the 
side and someone nearly ran me over.
They and I collided and ended in a pile on the floor. As 
we got up, I heard her swear 'she wasn't cut out for 
this stuff'.
"Who are you?" I asked her.
"Name's, Yuri" she snapped.
this must be the other person Nene was talking about
"You're the other Saber?"
"I don't want to be but this suit isn't giving me a 
choice"
"So you don't want to defend the innocent and protect 
the weak?" 
Someone not wanting to be a Knight Saber? Impossible.
That's like being offered immortality and turning it 
down because you can't stand how your ass looks.
"Not at all, I just want live my own life and die of old 
age" she retorted.
"Yuri? You do realize that you will be 
paid for you services?" Nene interjected
"Money?" Yuri replied, her voice wavering.
"Nene, how much would the job pay?" I asked.
"Well, there is the fact that the suits are low 
maintenance and..." Nene began to look over the costs of 
running a Knight Saber. Then a black haired woman came 
out of the door at the end of the hall.
"Oh your all here already, come on in. Nene, Sylia wants 
to see you. " The woman said.
With a resigned look Yuri followed the rest of us into 
the 'Training room'.

	The black haired woman spoke first, as we looked 
over the various weights and items in the 'Training 
room' 
"My name is Linna. This here is the training room, here 
we will be testing how fit you are and how combat ready 
you are"
"So your going to show how weak and slow we are?" Yuri 
replied.
"Actually how fast and strong you are, and that may 
amaze even you" Linna replied.
The actual tests and such didn't take long but there 
were so many of them. One of them was fairly simple a 
steel bar, about three feet long. The task, bend it.
Yuri said "No way am I going to be able to bend that" 
"try it" Linna replied.
During my own testing I found my speed and strength had 
increase in large amounts.
Yuri's increases were just as staggering. 
She took the fore mentioned steel bar and twisted it 
into a pretzel with all the ease of doing it with bread. 
The astonished look on her face when she was able to 
pick up a 200lb weight with her forefinger and thumb.
The ease she was able to juggle 50lb dumbbells.
At the end of the testing we both were sure we could 
take Superman three out of four falls. 

	We moved into the next room.
Sometime during the tests Nene and Priss had vanished 
elsewhere. In the middle was a mount of some sort. Yuri 
was selected to try it first. Linna and I went into a 
small booth to the side. Then the room lit up and I 
realized what it was.

A holochamber. A neat way to test yourself without even 
leaving the base. After the test Yuri looked sweaty and 
tired. Thus it was my turn. I got myself into the 
contraption. Then the simulation started. The room went 
white then darkened to a street corner downtown. With a 
boomer rampaging down the street.
The test was a simple boomer encounter. An old combat 
model boomer. Simple to kill but with enough smarts to 
prove dangerous. AD police being aggressive and 
attempting to kill both you and the boomer. Deciding to 
see just how maneuverable I was. I was playing around 
when a voice shocked me back to awareness of where 
exactly I was. 
"Aika stop fooling around and kill the boomer." Linna's
voice echoed through the chamber. 
"Ok" I replied.
A series of cartwheels brought me into close combat 
range of the boomer. Using my speed advantage, however 
little it was, to dodge its attacks and wait for an 
opening to kill it. A few seconds later. There!
My punch flew true. Smash. No more brain no more boomer. 
With my fist extended through the boomers chest the 
simulation ended.
'Wow' I thought 'that takes a lot out of one'.
Linna released me from the rig and then escorted us into 
another room. 
	In the room was a table with a large spread of 
food across it. As if planned both Yuri and I grinned 
and began to dig in. Linna was about to say 'dig in' but 
I think she knew we'd do that anyway.
Over the meal Yuri and I compared background.
Seems we had quite similar backgrounds. She came from
a poor family as I did. The only difference seemed in 
our aptitudes. She's a whiz at mechanics, whereas
I'm a whiz at computers and such. Seems Priss had ridden 
with her on a couple of occasions. They also from what I 
could figure out they belonged to the same club or 
something of bikers. 

	The meal seemed to pass quite quickly. Then, as we 
were dusting ourselves off of extra pieces of food and 
wondering where and how we put all that food away, Nene 
came in the door.
"Aika, Yuri, now comes the fun part. Actually trying out 
your 'hard suits'. Follow me"
"Did you have dreams of doing stuff in your hardsuit as 
well?"
I asked Yuri.
"Yeah, That's one of the reasons I was so dead set 
against being a Knight Saber, but now.. "she trailed 
off.
"I know it seemed like torture, but getting paid and 
able to be a heroine?"
"Well..."
"GET A MOVE ON YOU TWO." Nene yelled from down the 
hallway.
Sheepishly we both hurried down the hallway after her.

***********************

	The test area or should I call it a 
shooting range? It was both really. Targets downrange 
surrounded by some heavy plating from what looked like 
front line tank armor. The targets themselves looked to 
be remains of boomers welded together to provide a solid 
target. Also along one of the walls were more dummy 
boomers with what looked like extra armor and various 
implements of close combat. 
"Now both of you have trigger phrases that activate your 
armor. After some training you won't need them but it helps to 
get your self in the mindset."
Now on of the things Yuri and I had both been fans of 
when younger where those magical girl anime. Sailor 
Moon, and a whole slew of others. 
"So let me get this straight. We yell out those phrases 
and transform into armor suited warriors?"
"Well, yes"
Yuri tried vainly to keep herself from snickering. She 
succeeded, barely.
"So what do we call out?" Yuri asked.
"Well one of things we have done is so you can refer to 
each other without calling out each other's name is 
given each of you a code name."
"So what are they?" I asked.
"Well yours is Spectre and Yuri's is Atlas."
"Cool." both Yuri and I echoed.
"So the trigger phrases are?" Yuri inquired.
"your code name followed by" Nene mumbled the rest.
"What?"
"your code name followed by Knight Power Up" Nene 
finished.
"you're kidding." Yuri asked.
"hey, when I made them up they seemed cool" Nene fumed.  
"Hey, Yuri" I said
"What?"
I leaned over and whispered my plan to her.
"Oooh " She said after hearing it " let's do it."
"Spectre Knight Power Up!!"
"Atlas Knight Power UP!!"
As I finished the phrase a ripple passed down my body. 
Looking down I saw my clothes had been replaced by a 
skin tight black spandex suit. Then a weird feeling 
started at my feet and began to work it's way up.
Then suddenly everything went black. Then cleared into a 
HUD on the inside of my helmet. As the transformation 
finished. I began a series of poses as did Yuri. 
While yelling out
"I am Saber Spectre/Atlas and In the name of the moon
We shall punish you!"
Then we fell down laughing.
This continued for a while. 
Finally Nene was able to get us to stop 
laughing. As we were getting to our feet Nene said "I 
still say those were cool when I made those phrases up"
This set us off laughing again.
After about five minutes of this
"Enough, enough" I gasped.
"Ok, Then about your suits. They have a limited source 
of power. Once that has expired you're back to your 
normal self. The upside is you have almost a full two 
hours of power. That should be sufficient for most 
boomers."
"What happens after the two hours?" Yuri asked.
"Well for the most part your suits vanish, leaving you 
in your street clothes."
"Ah" 
"Basically that's only in combat situations. With low 
activity you could last almost twelve. Now for weapons. 
Each of you two are equipped differently. Aika you have 
a gun on your left arm and a extendable claw on the 
right."
As if in answer to the identification of it a three 
pronged claw extended from the back of my forearm. It 
was almost as long as my forearm.
Nene continued " Yuri your fists are reinforced for 
punching and each of the fists is equipped with a small 
explosive charge. The charge can be used once before 
needing reloading and that we have to do either here or 
at the mobile field base. So don't use them unless you 
need to. Then there are the array of rail guns in each 
forearm on yours, Yuri. They are a twin pair in each 
arm. They can fire either in concert or individually."
"So I'm the one who goes for close combat?" Yuri piped.
"Yep, and looks like I'm more maneuvering for a kill 
than punching it out" I added.
"As I was saying for the most part you two are unarmed 
for the long range weapons. The guns and such are not as 
effective against boomers. Simply due to the armor 
blocks most shots but can be easily ripped apart in hand 
to hand. Now for the really fun part, target practice. 
Think of what you want to hit and the targeting sensors 
will do the rest"
Nene then retreated to the control bunker at the back of 
the range. With a grin I turned and pointed downrange at 
one of the mock up boomers. 
"Who goes first?" I asked.
"Rock, paper scissors?" Yuri answered.
My luck being what it was Yuri won, Yuri raised her arm 
and aimed at one of the boomer mock ups.
A small pop echoed as she fired. Looking downrange I 
giggled as I realized where she had hit the boomer.
"Having boyfriend troubles, Yuri?" I asked.
"No, why do you ask?"
"Look at where you hit it."
Yuri squinted at the target or at least I assume she 
did. I couldn't tell with the helmet. 
"Oooh, that boomer ain't going to have children."
"My turn" 
Aiming my left arm at one of the mockups. I then 
realized I didn't know how to fire it.
"Um how do you fire it?" I meekly asked.
"Your fore finger"
"Ah"
Bitting my tongue as I concentrated at aiming at the 
chest of one of the mock ups. On my HUD a red targeting 
recticle appeared over the chest. A Green one appeared 
as I moved my arm to target the chest. As I moved my arm 
the green one moved. Lining up the two. As the two 
merged a tone sounded. Pulling my fore finger in an 
imitation of using a trigger. Nothing happened. Confused 
I released the trigger. An azure bolt of plasma shot 
from my gun and slammed into the mock up. Blowing a 
crater out of the front of the mock up.
"Whoa" Yuri and I echoed.
A voice echoed through the chamber
"Now try the close combat mock ups."
One of the mockups at the side shuffled to its feet and 
began a limp towards Yuri and I. 
"I believe it's my turn" I said.
Rushing at the boomer. I ducked under its fist and swept 
out its legs. Pulling back to where Yuri was standing.
"Your turn, don't damage it too badly"
"You're actually playing with it?" She replied, 
astonished.
"Well you want to double team it then?"
"Oh yeah."
The two of us rushed at boomer. Deciding that Yuri was 
the greater It swung at her. Yuri leaned back as she 
avoided the blow. Then as the arm began to pull back.
She lashed out and smashed the elbow downward. The force 
of the blow off balanced the boomer. Letting me get 
inside its guard and hit it with a devastating kick that 
removed its head from its shoulders. Over the PA came 
"Its not that easy most boomers require you to destroy 
their 'brain' before they die."
With that the boomer got back to its feet and stepped 
toward us yet again. extending my claw I rushed at the 
Boomer expecting a punch I went low. When I went flying 
across the room from a well aimed kick. I realized this 
wasn't as easy as I thought. Slamming into the wall 
knocked the breath out of me. 

Next thing I knew I was being helped to my feet by Yuri 
with Nene looking on.
"Ouch, guess I need more combat practice."
"You should be more careful around boomers. They will 
learn and adapt to your attacks. Just because it worked 
the first time doesn't mean it works the second time."
"Yeah, I had to trash that thing quick after it hit 
you." Yuri interjected.
"There are two types of Knight Sabers, the careful and 
the injured. Don't end up in the second category. Now 
for the neat stuff."
"Neat stuff?" Yuri asked.
"Yeah gadgets and such." Nene replied.
"Um.. How do we get these things off?" I asked.
"Oh visualize yourself in the clothes you want to wear" 
Nene responded. With that both Yuri and I went back to 
street clothes. 
"That HUD gets annoying after a while. Besides according 
to Nene we only have two hours of power." Yuri added.

With that done we followed Nene into what looked like a 
garage or workshop. Well a workshop to Yuri and a garage 
to me. Various Implements of machining and such that I 
can't identify were scattered across the walls and a few 
large machines littered the ground. The main thing that 
attracted Yuri's and my attention were two vehicles 
under tarps. 
"These are for us?" Yuri asked.
"Well that's what I was told. Mackie might want to go 
over the extra's with you two later. Speaking of him. 
Mackie!"
A guy working under a truck in one of the repair bays, 
stuck his head up. 
"Yes?" he replied.
"Mackie, this is Yuri and Aika. Give them the lay down 
of their new toys." With that Nene turned toward Yuri 
and I.
"He'll show you the extra's and such." 
As Mackie walked over from the repair, he cleaned his 
hands off with a greasy rag that seemed even greasier 
than his hands.
"So your the two new ones" Mackie said.
Not really having much to say I stayed silent. Yuri on 
the other hand. Began to get right into it.
"So these are motorcycles?"
"Well technically they are but they've been modified a 
bit."
"What are we talking weapon systems? supercharging? 
Nitro?" Yuri began to barrage Mackie with questions. 
Some I understood Others went right over my head. Mackie 
tried to answer as many of Yuri's questions as he could. 
Finally as if to get some relief he grabbed the two 
tarps covering the vehicles and yanked them off. This 
revealed two streamlined motorcycles one midnight blue 
the other red with smoky black over it. 
My response was "Cool."
Yuri's was "Which ones mine?"
As if to get away from Yuuri's questions, Mackie turned 
toward me. "That one is yours, Aika." He pointed to the 
midnight blue one. "And that is yours, Yuri." He pointed 
to the other one. 
"Wait a second. How do you know who was who?" I asked. I 
had a suspicious feeling about Mackie.
"Well... Nene, told me" he replied nervously.
"No she didn't she said both our names. Not 
individually." Yuri interjected. 
While Yuri was trying to get a straight answer out of 
Mackie, I looked into the repair bay he had been working 
in. In one coorner was a small wall mounted screen. It 
currently was showing the range. Looking at the 
controls, I fiddled with them until other rooms 
appeared. One being the room I awoke in, the other the 
one Yuri did then the testing room. I fumed 'he's been 
spying on us and he's probably seen both of us naked due 
to this spycam!'
 Walking up from behind the two with a dangerous look on 
my face. Yuri noticed me before Mackie. I mouthed the 
words 'spy camera'. Yuri's face darkened for a second. 
Then she winked. I sneaked up behind Mackie.
Tapping him on the shoulder.
"You, were spying on us weren't you?"
"W... w.. well..." he trailed off.
Yep as I thought he was.
"Do you know what Yuri and I do to peeping toms?"
"N.. n.. no" 
"Well tell the truth and you won't find out." Yuri said 
with a glint in her eyes.
At that Mackie broke down.
"Yes, I was spying on you, But and this is a big but, 
only for the range session. I needed to find out the 
color of your hard suits so
I could paint the bikes the same color." He spilled out. 
"Ah so that's why they look similar" Yuri added.
"Shall we give them a test drive?" I asked.
Mackie reached into one of the pockets on his overall 
and pulled out a pair of keys on key chains. He tossed 
one to each of us. The key chain looked like a remote 
for the bike. 
"What does the key chain do?" I asked.
"It transforms the bike and engages chameleon skin" He 
replied.
"Into what and what's chameleon?" Yuri asked.
"Well a extra suit of armor." Mackie replied.
"So we push a button and they form extra armor on us?" I 
broke in.
"Well yeah." Mackie replied.
"And the chameleon skin changes the color of the bike?"
"Yeah. You both know how to ride motorcycles?" Mackie 
replied. 
Yuri gave him a look that suggested that he was an 
idiot.
"Well I'm a little rusty but yeah." I replied.
"Rusty?" Yuri inquired.
"Well I haven't ridden in two or three years on one."
"Why not?"
"Well the one I used to ride was my brother's."
"Ah so how'd you learn."
"Well when I was sixteen. He got into his head that 
since I was such a good bicyclist I would be an even 
better motorcyclist. So he persuaded me to get a Class 6 
license so I could ride it. The bad side was he kept on 
making me ride the thing. I couldn't help but get half-
decent rider of one."
"I sense a big ouch after this." Yuri interrupted.
"Well then he started teaching me all these tricks."
"Like what?"
"Well wheelies, then 180 turns, then various emergency 
and flash maneuvers."
"Flash manuevers?"
"Like dismounting and having the bike stop a few feet 
later."
"Lets get going then." Yuri asked.
Mackie had wandered off during our conversation now as 
we seemed to finish he returned.
"Now, how do you two contact the Knight Sabers?"
That stumped us.
"Transform and use radio?"
"And give your position to anyone with good tracking?" I 
interrupted.
"This is how." Mackie held up a pair of watches. They 
also matched the bikes in color. He handed one to each 
of us.
"These watches will alert you to a boomer call and 
various meetings."
Wordlessly we put them on and turned toward our bikes.
"Arrgh, I just realized we don't have any gear!" Yuri 
exclaimed.
"Um.. Yuri, we can just make it ourselves." Picturing 
myself in my old motorcycling suit. She turned and 
looked at me and then giggled.
"Aika, you sure you want to ride around in that?"
Looking down I realized that I had assumed that the same 
size of shirt would fit me. Instead it looked my chest 
and my shirt were fighting a war to see who could 
contain the other and who could escape.
"EEP" Quickly picturing myself with a leather shirt as 
well as the jacket I was wearing. Then I noticed the 
look on Mackie's face. Giving him a good slap to the 
side of the head, I turned and got onto my bike.
"Oww. What was that for?" Mackie whined.
"For staring." I replied.
I stuck the key into the ignition and turned it. A dull 
rumble came from the bike then faded to nothing. 
Confused I looked at it. Usually bikes were a lot 
louder. Then Mackie piped up
"The bikes are nearly silent at low revs. The higher 
they are the more noise. At max speed though it still 
will be almost a whisper."
"Neat I replied. So how do I go so people do hear me 
coming?"
"There are deployable screech whistles on each side." He 
answered.
"So in other words I either ride around sounding like a 
banshee or as quiet as a ghost?"
"Well pretty well."
"Mackie, what about mine?" Yuri asked.
"Yours isn't silenced as much. Due to the larger 
engine." 
"Mackie, just how fast can these go?" I asked.
He replied off hand as if it wasn't that much "250."
"250? Holy." Yuri replied.
"Miles per hour or kilometers?" I asked.
"Kilometers" He replied.
"Whew" 
"Their max speed is much higher." Mackie added.
"Max speed.... " I stammered.
"Yeah it's about 350 to 400"
"Holy F**K" Yuri swore.
"Man I'm going to like these." 
"Shall we go now, Yuri" I asked.
She grinned and got onto her bike. Switching into bikers 
clothing herself. We drove off for some fun.

	Over the next few weeks Yuri and I practiced 
riding motorcycles and trying some of the maneuvers I 
had learned. For the most part I found riding around 
with the screeches fun. They sounded like a high pitched 
wail. Scared Yuri when I first used em. For me they came 
back fairly easily. Trying to remember how my brother 
had taught me. I taught her as many of the tricks I 
could. Yuri also taught me a trick or two about biking 
around. Then we would sneak off to Knight Sabers 
headquarters and practice combat and targeting. 

	One thing I found was I sucked at quick targeting. 
From all my gaming experience this should be easy, but 
no. Getting faster and more accurate every time. But my 
precision was off. I'd hit the target but do only 
superficial damage to it due to hitting either heavy 
armor or a useless part. By the end of the session I was 
quite ticked off. my last shot missed the head by a 
couple centimeters. Clenching my left hand (and thus the 
trigger). I walked around the room trying to calm down 
for the next shot. Deciding 'aw the heck with it' I 
turned, aimed and let go of the trigger. What happened 
next wasn't what I expected. I expected a small bolt of 
azure plasma to hit the target and maybe do damage. What 
happened was a huge ball of plasma shot down the range 
and vaporized the target. My last thought before 
fainting was 'wow I can do that?'

I came to in the MediLab. 
"What happened?" I said groggily.
"You over exerted yourself." Yuri replied.
"Did you see the size of that blast?"
"Yeah now if you could do that with out exhausting 
yourself."
"Yeah. I agree" I replied.

Then the big night happened. A rampaging boomer 
downtown. A quick shift to armor and away I went on my 
bike.

Author notes...

revised feb sometime late in the month
thanx to Sofaspud for C&C no one else did, well Tyd did as well
God this is a big chapter. Wish I could do this more 
often.
I will be putting this up onto my webpage. when I get 
the time

Any guesses to where I got the name Aika??

Until Next time, same batty place same batty sig,